Celebrity Visibility

As I’m sure you’ve all seen the news by now of Chaz Bono’s transition. At NCTE we don’t do a great deal of celebrity/media work, but the media have come calling today – in buckets. Normally, much of the celebrity gossippy requests we get are a distraction from our work. We try to keep our focus on our mission of changing national policies and practices.

But here’s the good thing about this story. People are really curious to understand what’s going on, and what this means for Chaz. For example, here’s Mara on CNN this morning:

We’ve had the opportunity to do some good “Trans 101” trainings with several reporters today. In the midst of one such call, a reporter asked Justin, “So, does it help at all to have celebrities come out as transgender?” At least in this case it has opened up a great conversation with more people in America.